Just Another Thursday
by Solstice Muse
Summary: Happy 32nd Birthday Ron Weasley!


**Just Another Thursday**

"This is Joanne's first and only job and she's been told by her employment officer to make her CV very long so it doesn't appear she's done nothing in comparison to other applicants. That's enough now."

"No way!"

"I swear, that is the entirety of this woman's application."

"And it's in really big letters?"

"Massive." Hermione sighed and re-read the application for her assistant. "I can't believe she actually wrote the words, 'That's enough now' and the end."

Ginny's head bobbed in the fireplace and she laughed.

"I'm all for giving people a chance. I was new and inexperienced once, but really. If you lack the common sense to reasonably pad out a sparse CV…"

"You have never been inexperienced," Ginny said, "you had more experience than all of them by the end of your first year."

"Oh, that's so sweet," Hermione said, bashfully, before looking shrewdly at the green flaming head hovering over her hearth. "I'm not taking the kids tonight."

Ginny looked miffed.

"But mine will keep yours occupied and cancel each other out!"

"If that's the case I'll send mine to you, shall I?"

Ginny sighed.

"Your mother will take them won't she?"

"Yes but then she'll spoil them and tell them stories about me and say things to me about motherhood, as if I don't have maternal instincts!"

"You don't Ginny."

"Well you don't either!"

"And this is why we got married to the men we did. They're both great with kids."

"Like two massive boobs."

Hermione snorted.

"My Ron, the mammary gland, I think he's as big a kid as they all are. Not so much the nurturing bosom."

"He's a great tit and you know it," Ginny said with a chuckle. "Seriously, they way he is with our lot is just like Percy used to be with me and him."

"Percy drove you both up the wall and the two of you complained about him," Hermione said with a frown.

"I mean before school, when we were little. He used to put us to bed and read us stories and teach us to read and write."

"He's only four years older than Ron!" Hermione gasped.

"He's Percy," Ginny said with a shrug, "Percy years are longer than human years."

They both laughed as two pairs of footsteps came hammering down the stairs behind Hermione.

"Don't run!" She rolled her eyes and heaved a parental sigh.

The room was filed with two voices saying everything on their minds at the same time and drowning the other out.

"Hugo wants to take his jar of frog's spawn to Muggle school but I said he can't because it's crue-"

"Get off them! Mummy, I wanted to give you this to give to daddy. Mummy…mummy…mummy…mu-"

"No! After school, we said, didn't we mummy? We're waitin-"

"You'll rip it! You don't even know what it is, so don't tell mu-"

"I have tests today and I'm going to be late. Put that down, Hugo! Can I have the school dinn-"

"I'm going to stay at Maurice's after school to look at his new kittens an-"

"…but I hate those healthy packed lunches so you could just give me some Muggle money and I could buy something from…"

"…and he stuck his finger in his mouth right afterwards! I'm not even that dirty am I mummy?"

Hermione was wrestling them into their coats and pushing their school bags into their hands as she guided them towards the front door.

"Sorry Ginny, school run and then work and then some kind of breakdown. Talk to you later."

"You try having five!"

Hermione paused and frowned.

"You have three…and Teddy."

"And Harry makes five," Ginny said with a grin before her head vanished from the flames.

"But muuuuuummmmmmm…" Rose began to protest…

Hermione opened the door as she reached for her coat and scarf.

"No fast food, no school dinners, eat your packed lunch."

Rose sulked and Hermione pried the jar of frog's spawn from Hugo's hand and set it on the side table.

"At least put the TV on for them!" He whined.

"I am not leaving the television on in an empty house so some eggs can have company!" Hermione snapped before freezing. "Who stuck their finger where after what?"

Hugo sniggered.

"Cousin Fred."

Hermione relaxed.

"Of course it was Cousin Fred. You know not to do what Fred does."

"I wasn't going to put that in my mouth!" Hugo grimaced with disgust.

"You are disgusting enough to do it, though," Rose said as she stepped outside and set off towards the street.

"Wait, what have I told you about marching off on your own?" Hermione called.

"Mrs Finch and Charlotte are coming," Rose said with a put upon huff, pointing down the road to a Muggle woman pushing a baby in a buggy with another little girl around Rose's age skipping ahead of her and beaming at Rose.

"Do not leave your brother behind!" Hermione ordered.

"I don't need to walk with girls," Hugo said, stubbornly.

"I know, but you're going to," Hermione said as she waved him on his way and then cast a 'what a day' look of weariness to Mrs Finch as she past, looking much the same.

"Hi Hermione," she waved.

"Morning, and thank you for this."

The little group made their way towards the school and Hermione stepped outside and closed the door behind her. Then she growled, turned to open it and grabbed her bag from the floor. She closed the door again, stepped down from the doorstep and almost throttled herself. Her scarf had been shut in the door.

"Don't do it, you've got so much to live for," an amused, familiar, but very tired sounding voice called from the door of the bike shed.

The bike shed was also a Ministry approved apparition point.

"You're late," Hermione said, harassed but full of warmth at the sight of her husband returning home from a fifteen hour night shift.

"I'd have used the Floo ages ago but it was engaged."

"Ginny," Hermione explained.

"Figured that," Ron opened the door and freed Hermione's scarf from it, "Harry couldn't get through at his either."

"He all right?" Hermione subconsciously ran her hands beneath his long coat, checking for signs of injury.

"Fine."

"You?"

"Knackered," he said before heaving a sigh and bending over to hug her with both arms as he gave a long groan. "Don't go to work."

"I have to go to work. I don't have an assistant."

"Hire somebody," Ron whined.

"You have no idea how bad these applicants are."

Ron made a grumbling sound into her neck and then stepped into the house.

"Go on then, have fun and I'll go to sleep."

"There's a delivery at two, you have to get up for that," Hermione said as she started down the path.

"Delivery," Ron repeated with a nod.

"Muggle, delivery, don't be levitating stuff into the kitchen."

"Muggle? Not Tesco?"

"ASDA won't come any more, they blacklisted us after you terrified them by sticking your head into a blazing fireplace in front of them!"

"But Tesco don't do that thing I like."

Hermione glanced up and down the street and then lowered her voice.

"Put all the shopping away before I get back and I'll do that thing you like."

Ron was clearly exhausted.

"But you don't know how to make the pastry."

She folded her arms and looked at him. He blinked and frowned at her.

"Seriously, Ron?"

Suddenly his eyes widened and the penny dropped.

"Oh!"

"That's it," Hermione said with a laugh. "Love you, love, got to go. I'm cutting it too fine as it is."

"Tesco, at two, no magic, stuff I like when you get home…kids?"

"Hugo's friend's house for an hour and then his dad's bringing them home in his car."

"Time?"

"Should be quarter past four, half past."

Ron nodded.

"Love you, love, bye." He waved her off and she hurried down the street, turned and then rushed back to the gate as he was closing the door.

"Ron?"

He looked back out at her again.

"Forgot something?" he looked over his shoulder, appeared baffled and then stepped forward holding a jar of frog's spawn. "These?"

"What time are you back to work?"

Ron looked as if thinking was asking a lot right now, he took a few seconds and then answered.

"Seven, briefing at half six though so I have to leave here at six."

Hermione's shoulders slumped and she stood at the gate.

"I know, shit ain't it?" Ron shrugged.

"So I'll be back at just gone five at best and you leave in less than an hour?"

Ron nodded.

"How long is the shift tonight?" She didn't really want to hear the answer, she suspected the truth already.

"Nine hours."

"Four? Four in the morning?"

He nodded.

"But it's your birthday." She felt silly saying it. The world didn't pause for birthdays.

Ron gave a tired laugh.

"Harry gave me piece of toast with a candle in it."

Hermione marched back up the path and hugged him, tightly.

"Happy birthday."

"Ta."

She kissed him on the cheek and then sighed as she turned to rush off.

"There's a cake in the delivery, have it with the kids and save me a piece."

"We'll wait for you." He called down the street after her.

"Don't, there won't be time, I don't want the three of you rushing it before you have to go."

"Take care. Get an assistant!" Ron waved her off as she reached the zebra crossing.

Hermione had to use a special lift at the tube station to take her down to the magical law department and the area would be packed with Muggles by now.

She crossed the road, hurried into the station, strode over to the lift and pressed the button.

"It's out of order, luv," a man Dean Thomas would have described as a 'geezer' said to her as he swaggered down the stairs to her right.

"Not to me it isn't," she muttered under her breath.

The lift doors opened, she stepped in and lifted her hand to push the button.

It was a Thursday.

It wasn't an important day.

There are papers to file and staff to hire and children to see off and welcome back.

The shopping was dealt with, they were busy people and they could do something at the weekend.

It was a Thursday, Thursdays aren't special, they both had work tomorrow and the kids had school and the week was still going on.

Thirty two wasn't a big birthday.

If it was thirty or thirty five maybe, or forty then they would book time off and do something special but thirty two on a Thursday. There's more important things to do than celebrate a thirty second birthday on a busy Thursday.

Hermione pushed the button, the doors closed, and she picked up a crumpled Daily Prophet from the floor as the lift moved down.

She scanned it for reports of what Ron and Harry had been up to that night. Was it ongoing or settled? Ron could never tell her, especially as she worked in the law department.

On page four she saw the press release, from Percy of all people, announcing that the raid on a Death Eater hideout in Belgium had been successful. All those in hiding had been detained, but only after a marathon duelling session through the night into the early hours.

As soon as one duel was won a second had to start before the Auror could catch their breath. It was estimated that the average Auror on the mission participated in at least twenty five consecutive duels during the mission.

Ron wasn't an average Auror.

She smiled to herself.

Neither was Harry, and Harry found the time to get some toast and a candle and do something for Ron's birthday. A non important Thursday birthday, marking a non landmark thirty two years. The lift doors opened, the wizards and witches of the law department bustled around before her.

Hermione stepped out and approached the out of her depth looking teenage witch sitting in the reception area.

"You're Joanne, yes?"

"Mrs Weasley?"

"Your CV is a joke," Hermione began, the girl's head dropped, "how serious are you about having something worth writing there in future?"

She looked back up, eyes wide.

…

He was sprawled across their huge bed, fast asleep. She slipped off her shoes and curled into the small space between an arm and a leg, resting her head on his chest.

"Knackered, yes," Ron's voice was a low rumble against her ear, she smiled as he continued, "sleeping, yes. I'm still an Auror though, don't think you can sneak up on me."

"Go back to sleep," she whispered.

"Why are you home?" His eyes were still closed.

"My assistant is learning on the job today."

Ron's lips turned up into a lazy smile.

"You're fixing it all tomorrow?"

"I'll be late, you feed and entertain the kids."

He shifted along the bed to make more room for her, still in a state of almost-sleep.

"Did you come back for sex?"

She chuckled and nestled into his side.

"Maybe later. Just sleep for now."

He cracked his eyes open.

"You're skiving off work just to sleep?"

"My gift to you; sleeping all day with a beautiful woman at your side. I'll even light a candle if you like."

He lightly stroked the side of her face with his fingertips and blinked.

"Love you."

"Love you, love."

"I'll shag you silly in four hours."

"Why four hours?" Hermione was baffled.

"Tesco at two, remember?"

"Happy birthday, Ron."

"Happy Thursday off, Hermione."

They brushed their lips together and Ron fell into one of his deeper sleeps.

A 32nd birthday on a Thursday turned out to be pretty special after all.


End file.
